While former Ohio Gov. John Kasich contemplates running for president on the Republican side, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, is seriously considering a campaign for the 2020 Democratic nomination.

Ohio’s significance and history in presidential politics is quite different from New Hampshire’s. The Granite State’s claim to fame is the quadrennial first-in-the-nation presidential primary, which often goes a long way toward determining nominees for the Republican and Democratic nominations. New Hampshire also is the birthplace of Franklin Pierce, the nation’s 14th president.

Ohio, meanwhile, is the birthplace for seven of the nation’s 45 presidents and was the residence of an eighth at the time of his election. However, more impressive is Ohio’s role in electing presidents. Since the 1892 general election, just twice has the state not voted with the winner of the Electoral College.

That’s right. Only two times since 1892 has a candidate become president without carrying Ohio in the Electoral College. Only Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944 and John F. Kennedy in 1960 managed to reach the White House while losing in Ohio.

It seems fairly obvious that winning Ohio does a lot for a candidate’s chances of becoming president. That is why Democrats should take a look at Brown.

According to the announcement, Brown is planning “tour stops” in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina – which just so happen to be the first four states scheduled to conduct their Democratic presidential nominating exercises.

Brown’s website touts the fact that he won re-election in Ohio last year with more than 53 percent of the vote. By comparison, in 2016, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton received only 43 percent of the Buckeye State’s vote.

We are not sure Brown is what the base of today’s Democratic Party wants in a presidential nominee because he is, well … a 66-year-old white guy from the Midwest.

Still, we believe Democrats would be wise to consider a candidate with a proven track record of connecting with blue-collar voters in battleground states in a way Clinton simply could not.